The sand has hit the elephant. The buttons have dried the desert. The empty CD-Rs are dancing to Radiohead. The unicorns have left the building. The US International Trade Commission is going to be working overtime this year: after Nokia and Apple, Motorola, too, has now filed a complaint with the ITC, seeking a ban on imports of RIM devices.

It seems the faeces are really hitting the fan now. After both Nokia and Apple filed complaints with the ITC due to alleged patent infringement, seeking a ban on imports of the other company's products, Motorola has now joined the fray. It claims that Blackberry maker Research In Motion is violating some of its patents.

"The five patents listed in Motorola's complaint relate to certain early-stage innovations developed by Motorola in key technology areas, such as Wi-Fi access, application management, user interface and power management, that are now being used by RIM," the press release reads, "These patented technologies are important to Motorola as they allow for more comprehensive connectivity, a better user experience and lower product costs."

Motorola requests that the ITC investigate the patent claims, and that it issues an exclusion order on RIM's products. An exclusion order could mean that all RIM products will be barred from the United States market.

"Through its early-stage development of the cellular industry and billions of dollars spent on research and development, Motorola has created an industry-leading intellectual property portfolio that is respected by the entire telecommunications industry," says Jonathan Meyer, senior vice president of intellectual property law at Motorola, "In light of RIM's continued unlicensed use of Motorola's patents, RIM's use of delay tactics in our current patent litigation, and RIM's refusal to design out Motorola's proprietary technology, Motorola had no choice but to file a complaint with the ITC to halt RIM's continued infringement."

I'm sure all this will eventually end with settlements, but in the meantime, I'd like to thank Apple, Nokia, and Motorola for making sure OSNews and other websites have filler material for years to come.